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Late To Bed, Early To Die? Night Owls May Die Sooner (livescience.com)

Posted by msmash on from the psa dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Bad news for "night owls": Those who tend to stay up late and sleep in well past sunrise are at increased risk of early death, a new study from the United Kingdom suggests. The research, which involved nearly half a million people, found that self-described "evening people" were 10 percent more likely to die over a 6.5-year period, compared with self-described morning people. The findings add to a growing body of research that suggests that being a night owl could have negative effects on health. Many of these effects may be attributable to a misalignment between a person's internal clock, or circadian rhythm, and the socially imposed timing of work and other activities, the researchers said. "'Night owls' trying to live in a 'morning lark' world may have health consequences for their bodies," study co-author Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement.

21 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. "sleep past sunrise increased risk of early death" by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Funny

    If one sleeps past sunrise then dies then his death would be late rather than early :)

  2. No wonder by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To even get out of bed in time we have to add unhealthy chemicals to our body that increase our blood pressure. Stop messing with the damn clock and let me come to work around 1pm and I'll be fine.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:No wonder by unrtst · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Reminds me of the book, "Eastern Standard Tribe", by Cory Doctorow.

      Since you don't know each others timezones, you might both be waking up at the same time, putting you both in the same tribe.

      The headline is also a lie. It's contradicted in the summary itself. This study isn't about going to bed early or late; it's about how much sleep one gets at night (ie: "Night owls' trying to live in a 'morning lark' world"). If the night owls' simply slept in just as much as they stayed up, it would be an entirely different study.

    2. Re: No wonder by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Both cocaine and caffeine constrict your blood vessels. It does eventually self-regulate to a more normal state. That's why caffeine withdrawal headaches happen - the body over-dilates the blood vessels in the brain to compensate for caffeine that isn't there.

    3. Re: No wonder by shaitand · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "To even get out of bed in time we have to add unhealthy chemicals to our body that increase our blood pressure."

      Both caffeine and cocaine are potentially unhealthy chemicals people are taking to manage the sleep patterns that arise from night owls having to adapt to a world which has a schedule catered to day larks as an artifact of having once been centered around natural lighting and agriculture.

      Today we are familiar with cocaine as an ultra pure extract of insane concentration being used by drug addicts, when it was outlawed it was generally a very dilute tea made from leaves with similar properties to caffeine and milder side effects. It was outlawed because the tea and coffee industries had a better lobby. The highly concentrated stuff mostly came about because it is smaller and easier to smuggle that way. If you treated caffeine the way we've come to treat cocaine it wouldn't be highly addictive only because you'd be dead. Nobody researches positive health effects of cocaine but it shares many of the same mechanisms believed to be responsible for the positive effects of caffeine. It may be trivia but it is worth challenging societal and preconceived notions now and then. In countries where they grow naturally it is quite common for workers to chew coca leaves in a use similar to our drinking of coffee or British drinking of tea.

    4. Re:No wonder by Roogna · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This exactly. As a natural night owl, when I'm in situations where I'm able to stick to my natural body clock, go to bed late, and wake up later. I feel refreshed and awake.

      Do I normally get to go to bed late and wake up late? No. In our current society I've spent the majority of my life having to get up early and then trying to force myself to sleep early. Not to mention time changes, and everything else the world does to try and mess with anyone deemed not on some random "perfect" schedule. There's no way being exhausted all the time is healthy for anyone.

      But give me a couple weeks of vacation and the majority of that is spent going to bed at 3-4am, waking up whenever, and feeling better than ever.

  3. Correlation =\= Causation by Jahoda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember a time on the "old" Slashdot when articles like this never hit the front page. Thr article itself seems to give no indication that we are controlling for diet, excercise, other health factors. Just "welp people who are night owls are more likely to die". annecdotally, the times in my life when I was up until 4 AM and sleeping until 2-3 were certainly not the periods where I maintained my health responsibly.

    1. Re:Correlation =\= Causation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I couldn't agree more. I think its more likely that people who tend to stay up late and sleep in are associated with more risk taking behavior.

      "Death" is a hell of a test factor for an experiment, especially irrespective of cause.

      That said, i bet if we dug into the data there's way better clickbait titles to be mined in there.
      If someone contracted herpes during the experiment, would sleeping in increase your chances of getting herpes?
      How about buying a new car?
      If you sleep in are you more likely to buy a Ford?

      If i were to completely unscientifically and sight unseen postulate an actual takeaway from a study like this, I would bet that most of these "night owls" work part time or multiple jobs. That is a data point that I would be more interested in.

    2. Re:Correlation =\= Causation by obenchainr · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, the research article itself covers this. From the abstract:

      "The primary outcomes were all-cause mortality and mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Prevalent disease was also compared among the chronotype groups. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, smoking, body mass index, sleep duration, socioeconomic status and comorbidities. Greater eveningness, particularly being a definite evening type, was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of all comorbidities." [Emphasis mine]

      Association is of course not causation, and the abstract doesn't imply causation at all beyond the obvious and already-stated: "Mortality risk in evening types may be due to behavioural, psychological, and physiological risk factors, many of which may be attributable to chronic misalignment between internal physiological timing and externally imposed timing of work and social activities. These findings suggest the need for researching possible interventions aimed at either modifying circadian rhythms in individuals or at allowing evening types greater working hour flexibility."

    3. Re:Correlation =\= Causation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You realize that essentially says nothing right?
      Pay attention the the clear effort to avoid making any concrete assertions.

      "Mortality risk in evening types MAY be due to behavioural, psychological, and physiological risk factors, MANY OF WHICH MAY be attributable to chronic misalignment between internal physiological timing and externally imposed timing of work and social activities. These findings suggest the need for researching possible interventions aimed at either modifying circadian rhythms in individuals or at allowing evening types greater working hour flexibility."

      That entire sentence is constructed from the conclusion up, and not from the evidence down.

    4. Re: Correlation =\= Causation by Miamicanes · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The biggest problem "night owls" have is living in a society that forces them to live in a state of life-long sleep-deprivation if they have any kind of normal job.

      I just don't get tired naturally until 2 or 3am. I can fall asleep earlier if I'm sleep-deprived, but THEN my body treats it like an afternoon nap... I'll wake up 3-5 hours later, then be unable to fall asleep again until dawn. My earliest sustainable go-to-bed time is ~12:30am (with Ambien & melatonin).

      I worked happily for years at a company that let me work 11-7 (usually a little later, but I didn't mind). I rarely got sick & did the best work in my life. Sadly, the company didn't survive The Great Recession.

      I later worked for 2 months at a job that required me to get up at 6:30am... it damn near killed me. I was getting sick enough to need antibiotics every 2-3 weeks (mostly strep & sinus infections), crashed & burned into Friday night, and didn't start to feel "not awful" until Sunday... and then the hell began started again. My short-term memory went down the toilet & took months to heal after I quit.

      By week 4 of my hellish early-morning job, I was having worse & worse muscle cramps... first, randomly at night. Then, sitting at my desk. Then at completely random moments, including driving or just walking. I'm convinced I was weeks away from having a heart attack that would basically have been just another muscle cramp, and probably would have literally died if I'd kept it up.

    5. Re: Correlation =\= Causation by StuartHankins · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Get checked for sleep apnea. That was why I was initially staying up... and drinking more than I should have in an effort to get sleepy enough to go to bed. It's a vicious cycle... Now I'm sleepy earlier and get up easier.

  4. Re:meh fuck em by Mr0bvious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fuck... shit.... it's fuck'n 2:48am...

    FUUUUUCK

    going to BED NOW!!!

    see you all tomorrow

    FUUUUCK!!!!!

    --
    Never happened. True story.
  5. Other factors by ranton · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The researchers found that the evening people were more likely than the early risers to have poor sleep quality and unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, sedentary lifestyles and eating late at night, Kim said. The night owls also tended to be younger, but were more likely to have high levels of body fat and triglycerides, or fats in their blood, than early risers. (Having high levels of fat is usually associated with older age.)

    I wonder if any of these factors could attribute to a higher mortality rate? This study simply states that night owls have a higher rate of unhealthy lifestyle choices.

    I would be more interested in the mortality rates of night owls who do not exhibit these behaviors. But then again there were only 95 night owls in this study, so I doubt you would be able to determine that from such a small sample size.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  6. A "morning lark" world by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why is the world designed for "morning larks?" We have telecommuting, electric light, etc -- not all jobs need to be done on 18th century farmers' hours. Is this just the human knack for self flagellation?

    1. Re:A "morning lark" world by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The puritan bullshit thinking. If you're sleeping, you can't be productive and thus you're BAD. And since they're already sleeping again ("after a hard day's work") when you're at peak performance, they don't see you work so you're BAD.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:A "morning lark" world by cyberchondriac · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We have all that now, but a million years or more of evolution have trained our bodies to be more sunlight synchronized. Think of the research stations at the poles where there's a very real concern of depression and it's accompanying conditions without sunlight.

      That said, no judging from here; I've always been a bit of a night owl myself, but not to a great extent. On weeknights I'm usually in bed by 11:30pm and on weekends, I stay up another hour, maybe two, depending. 2am is the latest and that's rare.
      Or maybe it's just more accurate to say I'm definitely not a morning person. I tend to sleep quite soundly at 7am or later, if allowed. Sometimes I even feel drowsier just as the sun starts to come up.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    3. Re:A "morning lark" world by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why is the world designed for "morning larks?"

      It's not. Movies start at 7:30 or 8, not 6pm. Lots of good TV dramas don't start until 10pm - Heck, Seth Meyers doesn't even come on until 12:35am (to be sure, less of a concern in this era of PVRs). Most restaurants don't even open until 8am on weekends. What breakfast at 6:30am? Unless you want an Egg McMuffin or your have a 24-hour Denny's nearby, ferget it. If your friends invite you out, you're considered a lame weirdo if you need to be home by 11.

  7. What if something is causing you to stay up late? by shess · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Linked articles don't really have anything on things which might co-exist with staying up late. For instance, in mortality cases, did staying up late cause health issues leading to death, or was there a health issue which made it hard to sleep which also eventually caused death? Does stress affect sleep? Does staying up late correlate with lack of exercise? The list could go on and on. Without a mechanism, it's silly/stupid to suggest modifying things like the job market to fix the problem. It's comparable to saying "Cholesterol is bad, you should be really careful about eating eggs."

  8. New Tax Announced by Going_Digital · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ministers will soon be announcing a "ground-breaking" late-to-bed tax to come into force in the UK. The new Tax will ensure everyone goes to bed before midnight in a bid to improve the heath of all UK citizens and boost the UK economy. Public Health England also hopes it will improve the health of children.

  9. Shift Worker by tquasar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I worked rotating shifts for fifteen years. One location changed shifts every week, another changed monthly. It was terrible. There were times that I didn't know if it was six AM or six PM. I couldn't eat at night because my stomach wouldn't digest food at two AM and when I had breakfast at seven AM and went to bed I would experience GERD. Now my sleep times are mostly normal.